Half yearly update from a terrible blogger

One-and-a-half and four-and-a-half. Not sure where those 6 months have gone and we're now quickly moving towards 5 and 2 and I'm DEFINITELY not ready for that.

I haven't updated the blog in a while and I really do need to make more effort with it. In the meantime, until I get myself organised, here's a quick half year update for us to look back on in years to come. 

The boys are just absolutely gorgeous. Total best friends. Henry was just made to be a big brother and he's loving life now Archie can interact and play with him more. He lives for the rare occasions that Archie cuddles or kisses him and is never happier than when he has his baby brother on his knee. A few weeks back we went to a music class and rather than sit on my knee on the floor, Archie decided he'd rather sit on his big brother's and it made Henry's day. Whenever we're in public with lots of other children, Henry is absolutely Archie's safety net; he follows him around calling 'brother' if he goes too far away and Henry is fiercely protective and so so proud of his "tiny baby brother" (who is neither tiny nor a baby any longer). 

Archie's speech is incredible. Henry's speech was quite late in developing so it's totally new to us. He can pretty much say anything you ask him to and has a vocabulary of easily 200+ words (over 10% being Bob the Builder characters!). He chats all day and is pretty much able to tell us what he wants, whether it's to be picked up ("up up up up upppp") or certain foods ("choc choc mama pleeeease") or a film on TV ("Gruffalo, Peppa, Wonka"). He's started putting 3 or 4 words together to make vague sentences which is just amazing considering how little he is. He says please and thank you or ta without being promoted a lot of the time now too; he worked out quite quickly that saying please nearly always gets you exactly what you want! He might be polite, but he's also a total bruiser. He is totally fearless, the absolute opposite of his big brother who's a cautious little soul.

They both eat amazingly still, they're beyond easy to feed and really enjoy their food. Henry's faves are prawns, paella and fish and chips and Archie loves any form of meat, berries and yogurts best of all. There's really not a lot that they won't eat but Henry still can't have any beans or peas because they upset his tummy so much.

Henry's getting on amazingly at nursery school. He tells us absolutely nothing about his days except for what he's eaten for lunch and snack (food is always a highlight!) but we see little glimpses through his role play and the school Twitter account. The staff all love him and he's come on so well, writing his name and the numbers 0-9 independently, as well as learning so many new songs, stories and facts. My teacher head says he'll always find numbers the easiest, I really can't see him sitting down to write long sentences for a good few years yet. He adores role play, singing and acting out and regularly spends his days as Hiccup (from How to Train your Dragon), Farmer Boggis (from Fantastic Mr Fox), Miss Trunchbull (from Matilda), Willy Wonka or just a general Viking. In fact, he's rarely just Henry Barker from Durham! 

Both boys love being outdoors best of all and I can't wait for summer with them this year. They both love the farm and seeing the animals, splashing in muddy puddles and exploring the woods and forest. We've had a really snowy winter and both of them absolutely loved being out in it, sledging and throwing snowballs, or just going down their garden slide into deep piles of snow at the bottom. 

Archie's sleep has improved vastly in the past couple of months and he no longer has any breastmilk over night. He was beyond easy to night-wean, it sort of happened accidentally and it's definitely helped him to sleep better overnight too. He usually wakes up once or twice at night but he does, on occasion, sleep through. Henry is similar, he often sleeps right through now but does still get up for the loo some nights or sometimes wakes up if he's a little unsettled. They've started sharing a bed in the last week or so. Archie does still sleep in his cot sometimes but they both settle so much better together and I see no harm in letting them share a bed and room for however long they both want to. Henry's so so tactile and loves any form of contact, but I don't think Archie is the same and may well want his own room and space earlier than his big brother, who I fear would happily sleep with his mummy and daddy until he's 12!! 

I love being their mummy so much and get so much pleasure from our simple little life. I've always said I'd love a 3rd baby but now I'm just not so sure. I'd be more than happy with a future filled with my two perfect little boys and I'm so thankful every single day that God chose me to be their mama. 

Henry at 4

4 is a big step. 4 seems miles older than 3 somehow. I think it's something to do with it being school age, and if Henry had been 3 weeks older, I'd have a little school boy on my hands. He's settled into nursery amazingly, he loves it and he's now there 30 hours a week. He loves it but I'm struggling with it. I hate having to share him with school, I hate that I only see him for 3 hours a day during the week, even less on a Monday. But like I say, he loves it and that's the important thing. He tells us very little about his days except for odd snippets and usually what he's had for lunch and snack. It's strange having to let him go a little bit, let him have his independence and let him have a few hours every single day when I don't know what he's doing. But that's just what growing up's about isn't it? Every year I'll have to let him go a little bit more, but 4 seems to have been a big step in that respect so far and it's taken me by surprise. It's ridiculous that he's coping with it far better than I am. Says a lot about his personality really.

He still is the most beautiful and laid back little thing. Everyone comments on it. I know I'm his mummy and everyone thinks their children are amazing, but honestly, he is. He's kind, empathetic, calm and polite. He's rarely upset or cross, never rude and hates any form of injustice. I'm so beyond thankful every single day that I get to be his mummy and despite the worries about having to let him go a bit, I just love watching him grow up. It's an absolute privilege to be able to call him mine. Ours. Our little Pigwidgeon.

He is still a perfect big brother. In 12 months he has never shown even a scrap of jealousy towards Archie. I really thought he might be jealous of Archie going to my mum's while I was back at work and he was at school but he hasn't been at all. He shares with him, lets him play with his toys, lets him go in his bedroom (and usually absolute destroy it), lets him have the last biscuit, chocolate, whatever. Archie honestly couldn't ask for a better big brother but I'm slightly concerned all of this may be turning Archie into a spoilt monster, but you can read his 2 year update in a year's time to see how that turns out. Pray for us! 

He'll still eat pretty much anything and loves his food. His current favourites are any form of fish or shellfish. Fish and chips with Marmar on a Friday tea time is probably his favourite meal of the week but his other favourites at the moment include 'fish with heads on' (what you and I call whitebait), calamari and prawns. He loves his daddy's paella and huge bowls of pasta and any sweet treat going. He's still an absolute pain to get anything milky in to. Yogurts and cheese he'll tolerate but he certainly doesn't love them, and milk is an absolute no no. And peppers. Don't ever suggest he eats a pepper. He'll eat a dirty fried fish head in the form of whitebait but not a pepper. Go figure.

His other loves at the moment are dragons and knights, sword fights and anything from How to Train your Dragon. Vikings and Romans are a huge hit and he's fascinated with periods of history. He spends the majority of his time living in some kind of alternate world, role play is absolutely his thing. Small world play isn't something that interests him at all; if he can't act it out, he's not interested! We are all usually the characters from How to Train your Dragon, but also dip in and out of the worlds of Fireman Sam, Postman Pat and Bob the Builder. He loves to sing too and I think he's going to love drama as he gets a bit older, he absolutely takes after his Daddy and Uncle Simon there, I can think of nothing worse.

In terms of routine he doesn't usually nap anymore because of nursery, but he's more than happy to have a good few hours sleep on a weekend afternoon, but it does mean he'll go to bed a lot later that night. During the week he's up by 6:30 and always asleep by 6:30 too which is quite a big change over the last year. He's so flexible and when we were away in Spain he had a sleep every afternoon, so it's really lovely that he will still nap if we need him to or if we're going to be up particularly late one night. 

I've always noted down his weight, height and sizes in his annual updates so just for the record, he weighs 2 st 7lb and is 103cm, still pretty much 50th centile for both. He wears a mixture of 3-4 and 4-5 clothes and his feet are now a size 9. 

And that's it really. We have a 4 year old. I still can't get my head around that and I can't believe it was 4 years ago that I met him for the first time. Little did I know then about how much I'd adore him, how beautiful he'd turn out and what a perfect and loving little boy he'd be. Every night since he was a tiny baby, I've said the same thing to him as I put him down to sleep. I tell him that I love him to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond and forever and ever. He says it along with me now and I mean every word. I just hope that he always knows just how loved he is. 

Happy 4th birthday, little Pigwidgeon, you're the best thing that ever happened to me xxx

One

One. A whole year. 12 months. 365 days. Not a huge amount of sleep. Tears. Smiles. So so much love. 

I honestly can't believe I have a 1 year old, it seems like only yesterday that I was lying in that hospital bed overwhelmed with love for my tiny newborn baby boy. Yet, having said that, I feel like I've known him my whole life. I just don't remember what our life was like before him.

He's the happiest, easiest baby for the most part. He's almost walking, but not quite, and a total chatterbox too. He's the apple of his big brother's eye and the feeling is mutual, I'd say. Here's his 12 month update.

Weight: Archie now weighs 11.5kg, meaning he's pretty much down to the 91st centile line. Still a chunky monkey, but not quite as chunky as he once was! 

Sizes: Archie is generally now wearing his 12-18m clothes and is in size 5 nappies. He recently got his first little shoes and he's a size 4G. 

Feeding: Archie is still breastfeeding morning and evening and also through the night. He's really not particularly attached to his milk feeds and will easily go to sleep without them if we need him to, which is great. He's happy not to have a feed during the day and rarely 'asks' to be fed, it usually has to be offered to him. He's eating solid food like a total pro now; he'll eat anything and everything. He tends to just eat exactly what we're eating for each meal and we haven't actually found anything yet that he doesn't like. He's so so easy to feed like his big brother. His favourites are little veggie stick crisps, broccoli, strawberries and tomatoey pasta.

Routine and sleep: He's still usually having two sleeps a day, but can manage fine with one if it's around lunchtime. He tends to have a short morning nap about 10am and then a longer nap just after lunch. He goes to bed around 6:30pm with Henry and wakes up anywhere between 6-7am each morning. He is still a terrible sleeper overnight, made worse by the fact that he's currently teething and cut 3 molars in the space of a week! I'm really hoping once his teeth settle down a bit he might improve.

Milestones:

• He now has 10 teeth with another couple on their way through 
• He can stand up unaided now and cruises the furniture easily. He can walk holding a hand but still goes down to crawl rather than try to take a step when we leave go of him.
• He is talking so much, copying so many words we say to him and clearly saying over 20 words so far. He can say mama, dada, brother, Marmar, Parpar, dog, George, Peppa, yes, no, more, up, bad boy (!!), cuddle, row (as in row row row your boat), round (as in the wheels on the bus), banana, cat, duck, keys, night, hiya, hello and bye. He also says 'nee naw' for a fire engine and knows that a sheep says 'baa' and a lion says 'raaaah!' He's a real chatterbox! 

I think that's all there is to report on our little one year old; here's to the next 12 months! 

10 month update

10 whole months. Archie is turning into the most placid, happy boy. He's such a happy soul and he's just at such a lovely age where we're beginning to see his personality coming through. He's so easy - plays by himself, eats anything, doesn't rely on breastfeeds, goes with the flow, naps well in his cot. But he doesn't sleep at night and he is an absolute destroyer with a bit of a death wish at the moment! He's constantly trying to climb out of things, almost drowns in the bath on a daily basis resulting in us only letting him in the water for about 35 seconds each day, empties boxes, makes mess....he's definitely a handful in that respect!! His big brother still utterly adores him, even when he's pulling at his hair, trying to steal his food or playing with his toys. It's like we've had him forever, we just can't imagine life without him. 

Weight: Archie now weighs 11.1kg meaning he's finally dropped off his 98th centile line!! He's about the 94th centile now and hasn't put much weight on at all in the last couple of months since he's been on the move. He's still gloriously chunky though, I'll be devastated when he doesn't have his chubby rolls anymore. 

Sizes: He's wearing mainly 9-12m things now but some 12-18 things fit too so it's a bit of a mixture. He has a gorgeous summer wardrobe but the weather has been so awful I've found it really hard to dress him, as most of his warmer things are too big still. He's in 5+ nappies and we haven't been to have his little feet measured yet, but I'm sure it won't be long. 

Feeding: He's an absolute dream to feed. He'll eat literally anything you give him, he has such a good, healthy diet and he's dropped most of his daily milk feeds now so we're down to morning, night and an occasional one or two in the day depending on his mood (he's teething this week so has wanted a bit more than he has done for the past couple of weeks). If I'm not around, he doesn't need a milk feed at all and is just happy with water from his sippy cup. He does still feed during the night but I'm considering night weaning him once he turns one, or possibly weaning completely. I always said I wanted to get to him being one so I could skip formua and go straight to cows' milk, but now it's approaching I'm not sure what to do. I do think it'll be relatively easy to stop feeding him, because he's nowhere near as attached to me and to his milk feeds as Henry was at the same age. But at the same time, I'm never away from him for long, have nowhere I need to be overnight or anything coming up, so maybe I'll just do the easier thing and continue to feed him for a bit longer like I did with Henry. It's definitely on my mind and I'm starting to consider how and when to introduce cows' milk to him too. 

Routine: He usually has two naps a day, but manages with just one occasionally too. He tends to go to bed around 6:30pm at the same time as Henry and wakes around 7am on a morning. 

Sleep: He's a really good napper and naps happily in his cot, car seat or pushchair, depending on where we are that day and what we're doing. Night sleep still isn't good but possibly improved on last month. He goes down easily, usually half awake and aware that he's being put down, but that hasn't stopped the waking up during he night. He's an absolute nightmare but cosleeping for some of the night is saving us and so is knowing that it won't last forever.  

Milestones:

• He now has 7 teeth, a new bottom one arriving today. 
• He can wave hello and goodbye, as well as clap, and he wiggles his fingers for 'twinkle twinkle little star'. So so cute. 
• He can crawl forwards finally and he's pretty speedy too. I take my eye off him for 10 seconds and he's usually off towards the dog's bowl or his big brother's bedroom! 
• He can stand for a few seconds on his own and can cruise around the furniture now too. He's constantly pulling himself up to stand and can't wait to get walking himself! 
• He's 'talking' a lot more. He can now say mama, dada, dog, more and no. He's making all kinds of other sounds but they're the only ones that are definite words he uses. 

 

9 month update - long overdue

Terrible blogger alert. My old blogger app stopped working and meant that I could no longer blog in the middle of the night during night feeds or sat on the sofa feeding Archie. Sitting down with the laptop at the table to write a blogpost just isn't that doable with two little ones around, so I've been a bit slack on the monthly updates. All is well here though, I can't get over the fact that my baby is 9 months old. It's a countdown until his first birthday now and that's just terrifying. I'm now not going back to work properly until September which is just such a relief. I love our laid back days so much, just love our little routine that we've settled into nicely in the last few months. I'm sad that these baby days are numbered, that our baby boy is less baby-like by the day. It's gone way way too fast, but it's like our little Albicoccs has been with us forever, I quite simply can't imagine our family without him. 

Weight: Archie had his 6-12 month check with the health visitor at 8.5 months and now weighs 10.7kg. Still tracking the 98th centile exactly! 

Sizes: He's wearing a variety of clothes. Lots of his 6-9m stuff still fits, he's mainly in 9-12m things but some of his 12-18m stuff fits too! It's an absolute lottery trying to buy anything because it's so different shop to shop. He's in size 5 nappies too. 

Feeding: Archie is finally feeding less during the day. He has a morning feed, lunchtime feed and bedtime feed every day, and occasionally another one or two feeds in between if he wants them. He still feeds overnight too. He is eating solid food like a total pro. He'll eat anything if he's hungry enough, there hasn't been a single thing he's refused to eat yet. For breakfast he usually has Greek yogurt with fruit, weetabix or porridge. Lunch and dinner is generally similar to whatever we're having, or purée if we're having something unsuitable like steak or something spicy. We were in Spain a few weeks back and no one could believe how well he ate, he definitely got a taste for paella out there!! 

Routine: He has 2 naps a day now, usually at around 10am and 2pm. We try and fit them in around whatever we're doing so they aren't set in stone, but I do find that he's pretty similar every day. 

Sleep: He really is a terrible sleeper still. He rarely goes longer than 2-3 hours at night, often waking up way way more frequently than that. I'm shattered, I probably only get to nap once or twice a week, but there's nothing that I can do except grin and bear it and know that it will get better one day. Henry was an appalling sleeper and even he improved eventually, so I haven't lost hope! 

Milestones:

• Albi has 6 teeth, 4 on the top and those cute bottom 2. He hasn't really suffered too badly with getting them either, so that's good. 
• He can crawl backwards and roll anywhere, but isn't managing to move forwards yet!! It won't be long though I don't think.
• He can clap is hands when you ask him to and thinks he's very clever when he does it! 

 

 

A Peter Rabbit christening

I wanted to write a post about my littlest boy's christening which we had two weeks ago now. It really was a totally perfect day, not how I imagined it to be necessarily, but so perfect and something I wish we'd done for Henry and something we'll definitely do for any subsequent children that we may have. It wasn't a big affair at all, in fact I'd felt so guilty about it for the weeks leading up to it because we'd had a big party at home with 30 guests for Henry's christening when he was 9 weeks old. When Archie was 9 weeks old I couldn't even imagine doing something similar and truth be told, I found Henry's christening more stressful than it needed to be and whilst I'm sure everyone else enjoyed themselves, I was stressed, tired and spent the majority of the day feeding my hungry newborn and pacing up and down with him to try and get him to sleep. When everyone went home at the end of the day we still had guests staying that we needed to entertain, and carpets to hoover, cups and glasses to wash and chairs to put away. I just knew that I didn't want to do such a big party this time around and certainly not at home.

When Prince George was christened I remember thinking that it was a lovely idea to just have closest family and godparents invited - his was the first christening where I'd heard about someone doing that and I decided that that was what I wanted to do this time around. Of course there were a few really good friends that I'd have loved to have been there and family too, but we just had to be really strict. It was a case of inviting 12 people or 30; once you start inviting odd friends or family members, there are suddenly others that you 'have' to invite and then you end up with a huge party again. So that's what we did. Invited our very immediate family and Archie's godparents - my cousin and his fiancee and my oldest childhood friend. Three people that I know will be there for my little boy forever. Three people that were so excited about his arrival and adore him so much. He's so lucky to have so many people that love him and care for him and most of those people were there to celebrate with us that day.
At the church there were three babies being christened and one family must have had over 100 guests - quite a contrast to our 13! 

The service was really lovely though and Archie was an angel throughout. Henry enjoyed sitting next to the vicar's feet and being a 'helper' and as far as christening services go, it was really really lovely. We had a few photos afterwards and then headed out for a posh lunch just down the road.

Chinese food isn't your average christening lunch but there's an amazing posh Chinese restaurant by us and that's where we chose to go. Everyone at the table knew one another well, no one felt uncomfortable or awkward and we all had such a lovely meal chatting and laughing. Both boys were so well behaved and it was lovely to be surrounded by our closest family and friends.

After the meal,we came back home for drinks and cake, and again, because everyone was so close, it was really relaxed. 

Most people just helped themselves to drinks, the boys soon disappeared upstairs to watch the Sunderland game and the ladies sat downstairs and chatted for hours.

 It was so so lovely and a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday. When everyone had left there were literally a few cups to wash up and the house was back to normal once again. So easy compared to last time and we'd all had such a lovely afternoon.

I loved planning the christening this time around and we had some lovely little details that made the day more personal and special. Lovely Peter Rabbit invites, little seed favours for the table and pretty place cards, a playlist of songs chosen especially for Archie and a few decorations in the house. The whole thing didn't cost a huge amount of money, and both sets of parents kindly helped us to pay for it, but it was so perfect. I can't imagine having done anything else now and I'm so glad that our little Archie was able to have his special day surrounded by 12 people that love him so much. He's a lucky lucky boy.

5&6 month update

Apologies for lack of updates. Life is busy with two little ones. Lazy, laid back, relaxed, but still busy. I rarely get a chance to sit still for a second, let alone drag out the laptop for a blog post. I'm going to make a conscious effort to blog more though, maybe setting aside one morning a week when Henry's at nursery and it's just me and Archie at home. But those mornings are oh so precious. 2 and a half hours of precious toddler-free time. Time to hoover, disinfect, cook, freeze tiny cubes of puréed down baby food, time to shop, pick up orders, do a Post Office run, send emails, stop for coffee and cake, wander aimlessly around the shops without the usual swift run in and grab anything off the shelf accompanied by two small children. You get the idea. Mornings are precious and we bloody love them. Sorry to future Henry who may be reading this, but I do love them. But what I love more is my absolutely favourite time of every day. Honestly, my very favourite. Coming to meet you. I love that more than anything.

Anyway I digress, on to Archie's 5&6 month update. I have a 6 month old. Half a bloody year. It feels like we've had him forever, but it's terrifying that he's no longer a young baby. He's learning new tricks by the day, developing his own little personality and quirks and we've really settled into life as a four now. I no longer have the pangs for alone time with Henry, or with Mr B, I'm used to having my little Albicoccs with me 24/7 and I adore it. I adore him. He's just so nice. I can't really describe his personality in any other way. He's so so nice. Except for when he has the odd bad day...then he's bloody awful and everyone knows about it!! But for the most part he is really really settled and easy. He's happy to be put down and left alone, happy to be held by people he doesn't know all that well, happy to be smooched and squeezed and snuggled by his big brother, he's just generally a happy little boy. Here's a quick 6 month update:

Weight: He weighs 22lb or 10kg exactly now - still tracking that 98th centile line. A proper chubby little bunny.

Sizes: He's mainly wearing 6-9 month clothes, although a couple of his things are now 9-12 months. I can't believe how quickly this child has grown out of clothes, it's ridiculous!! He's wearing size 4 nappies now too.

Feeding: He's still breastfeeding like a pro, he's a super quick and efficient feeder and in the last few weeks he's dropped to feeding every 3+ hours. Finally! He had a really funny few days when he first got his teeth when he refused to feed completely (so stressful) but after that was over, he never went back to his constant feeding and we're in much more of a routine with milk feeds. He started solids too at 5.5 months and is doing so so well with that. He manages really lumpy foods and does well to hold food and feed himself too. He's loved everything he's tried so far - every fruit and vegetable you can imagine, as well as pork, chicken and salmon in various forms. Tonight I made the boys a separate tea to us and it was so nice giving them an early dinner together, both of them eating the same thing, giggling at one another across the table and being generally silly. It's how imagined having children to be and it was just lovely.

Routine: He has three naps a day, one in the morning a couple of hours after he wakes up, a longer one in the afternoon and then a short evening nap after tea. His evenings are pretty horrendous because he just doesn't settle well until really late and we've tried everything we can think of but nothing's worked. So for now we're just taking it a day at a time, telling ourselves it's a phase that'll pass, and enjoying having him snuggled with us (often dozing on and off) downstairs on an evening until about 9pm. His routine is super flexible and he's generally a really flexible baby. He'll happily nap wherever we are as long as he's in a pram, his car seat, or in someone's arms being cuddled in - the joys of having a big brother with a busy social life mean that that's his only really option! He's finally stopped screaming in the car (except for night time journeys, bizarrely) which is such a relief because it was so stressful knowing that he was so distressed being out in the car.

Sleep: Ugh, sleep. Still terrible. No real reason for it being so terrible other than he's a baby and clearly not 'a sleeper'. He regularly wakes up every hour over night, every two hours is standard. Any more than that is a miracle. Thoroughly depressing, I look horrendous with the worst eye bags and I'm carrying a good few pounds of unnecessary weight which is a direct result of a new addiction to lattes which I can't really get through the day without. The less said about sleep, the better.

Milestones:

* Archie got his first tooth when he was still 4 months old and his second followed a week or so later. Really really early for teeth, but they're so super cute in photos and there's no sign of any more as of yet. He had a few days of being really grumpy because of them but all in all, not too bad considering.

* He can roll from his back to his front now, as well as the other way which he's been doing for a while. He can actually travel quite far just by rolling which is funny and we need to be really careful where we put him and what he can grab that's nearby!

* He learnt to sit up at 4.5 months and has slowly got better at sitting for longer periods. He's much much stronger now and sits really well on his own for ages, occasionally topping sideways if something grabs his attention before he's had a chance to steady himself.

* He's had his first food and is loving life now that he can eat. I've heard people talk about babies who were obviously ready for food and never really thought much of it until I had Archie. I only decided to start weaning one day when we were out and he was practically launching himself, open mouthed, at my scone. Even now he is like a little bird sat waiting for his mummy to feed him with his mouth wide open if we're eating something nice. He's definitely a hungry little boy.


And that's all I can think of at the moment to include. It's almost 10pm and I'm so ready to sleep so I'll probably end up editing this during a night feed when i suddenly remember something that i meant to include. Roll on month 7. I'm most definitely not ready to have a 7 month old - this is getting ridiculous.